After you cross the age of 60 or once you exit the working life, it becomes more and more difficult to acquire certain crucial financial instruments. So, the best way to avoid missing them is to acquire such instruments before you retire. Here are 3 important financial instruments that you must get before your retirement.

Credit Card That Compliments Your Spending Needs And Lifestyle

Usually, credit card companies allow an individual up to the age of 60 to 65 years to apply for new credit cards. However, after retirement and in the absence of a regular source of income, it gets more and more difficult for seniors to get a credit card. Even if one gets a credit card after retirement, the product usually comes with a low spending limit, and they miss several attractive features.

Credit cards can be a very useful financial instrument for retirees as they can use them to meet liquidity crunch in financial emergencies, to spend with a free credit period of up to around 50 days, and to get attractive reward benefits on their regular spending.

So, before your retirement, you should try to get a credit card that matches your lifestyle and spending pattern. For example, if you plan to travel more after your retirement, you can apply for a credit card that levies lower currency markup on foreign transactions, offers free airport lounge access, higher rewards on flight booking, and so on.

Health Insurance With Adequate Cover Size

As you grow older, you usually become more and more susceptible to getting new ailments such as diabetes, high blood pressure, joint pains, etc. So, most health insurance companies restrict new health policies for people in the higher age categories, i.e., beyond 65 to 70 years of age. Some health insurance companies offer special senior citizen policies for people in higher age categories, but that comes with several restrictions, such as capping on treatment amounts for several ailments, co-pay requirements, etc. So, it’s better to secure your health before you retire from work life.

Before retiring, you must assess the size of your health policy, and if it’s not adequate, you should enhance the coverage. If you are covered under a family floater policy, you may switch to an individual policy for better coverage.

Will With Updates As Per Recent Changes

It’s better to make a will as soon as possible in the career. Revising the terms of the will from time to time becomes very important in the long run, and especially when you are exiting work life, you must take a good look at your existing will and make the essential changes in sync with your retirement planning.

Apart from the above-mentioned financial instruments, you must also check your financial readiness to step into retirement life and take the necessary steps immediately if you feel unprepared!

The author is an independent financial journalist.